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Jan Baran Weighs in on Likelihood of FEC Commissioner Replacements

Roll Call

April 5, 2011

Jan Baran, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, was quoted commenting on the likelihood of new appointments to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). By the end of April, five of six of the FEC commissioners’ terms will expire, affording President Obama the opportunity to appoint new ones to the agency. However, election law experts speculate that Obama will likely not be able to seat any new commissioners as he does not currently have any nominees before the Senate. While the president can appoint anyone he chooses, traditionally, each party has offered up its own list of nominees for the commission. Mr. Baran said that the odds of new commissioners being nominated and then confirmed by the Senate are “virtually nil unless done quickly and soon.” He added that “as Obama continues raising his billion dollars for re-election, Harry Reid has his guy [at the FEC], and McConnell has his guy there. So what’s the incentive to make any change?”

SIGNAL Group (formerly McBee Strategic Consulting, LLC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wiley Rein. SIGNAL is a total solutions provider—advocacy, strategic communications, research, and digital media—for clients seeking to engage the federal government to achieve competitive advantage, influence public policy, establish new markets, and secure public capital.